High Times x Sensi Seeds: High Times Launches Its First Seed Line ⋆ Patriots Hemp

Sensi Seeds, a regular on the Cannabis Cup winners’ list, bred High Times’ first line of seeds: five feminized strains that pair Sensi classics with genetics American growers love.

For more than five decades, High Times has written about other people’s weed. Since 1988, it has also judged it, handing out Cannabis Cups to breeders, growers and seed banks from Amsterdam to Los Angeles.

Now, for the first time, the magazine has genetics of its own.

Blue Flame, Doughnut Glaze, Ice Cheeks, Sour Durban and Zangria Jelly, five feminized strains bred by Sensi Seeds, launch today as High Times’ first line of genetics. Each one pairs a Sensi Seeds classic with genetics that have become favorites among American growers, from Sour Diesel and Thin Mints to Cold Snap and Frosted Flakes.

*The first High Times strains, bred by Sensi Seeds. (Courtesy of Sensi Seeds)*

Picking the breeder wasn’t hard. The two go back to the very first Cannabis Cup.

A History Written at the Cup

The first High Times Cannabis Cup took place in Amsterdam in 1988, where The Seed Bank of Holland’s Skunk #1 took the top prize. Year after year, the Cup brought High Times readers from all over the United States to Amsterdam, the city Sensi Seeds calls home, and the Dutch seed company kept showing up on the winners’ list.

In 1998, Sensi Seeds took second place for Best Seed Company. A year later, its Jack Herer won first place in the sativa category, and the company won first place in the Expo Cup. In 2002, Mother’s Finest took first place among sativas. In 2004, Jack Flash placed third.

*The Sensi Seeds team at the 1999 Cannabis Cup, where the company won first place in the Expo Cup. (Courtesy of Sensi Seeds)*

*Jack Herer and Ben Dronkers at the 1999 Cannabis Cup. (Courtesy of Sensi Seeds)*

The relationship ran deeper than trophies. In 1987, Steve Hager published “Inside Cannabis Castle” in High Times, a profile of Nevil Schoenmakers and The Seed Bank of Holland. In 1991, Ben Dronkers brought The Seed Bank’s plant and seed stock, including Skunk #1, under the Sensi Seeds roof, according to the company. And when Dronkers threw the release party for Jack Herer in 1994, a strain he named in honor of his friend and fellow activist, then-High Times editor Hager and part of the magazine’s crew came to the Castle to celebrate. The company remembers it as a night of 18th-century costumes and buds served on silver platters.

In September 1996, High Times put Dronkers on its cover, with a Peter Gorman interview titled “Ben Dronkers: The King of Seeds Goes Hemp.”

*The Sensi Seeds team at the 1998 Cannabis Cup, where the company took second place for Best Seed Company. (Courtesy of Sensi Seeds)*

*Ben Dronkers, Eagle Bill and the Sensi Seeds crew at the 2002 Cannabis Cup, where Mother’s Finest won first place among sativas. (Courtesy of Sensi Seeds)*

*Jack Flash, which placed third at the 2004 Cannabis Cup. (Courtesy of Sensi Seeds)*

“For nearly four decades, we’ve entered our finest genetics in the High Times Cannabis Cup, so creating their very first strains is a real full-circle moment for us,” said Gio Dronkers, CEO of Sensi Seeds. “Every one has a Sensi Seeds classic at its heart, paired with a mix of modern US favorites and globally iconic genetics we’ve been excited about for a long time. Our friends across the pond are doing some of the most creative breeding out there, and bringing the two together was a joy.”

The breeding started with genetics Sensi Seeds has grown, crossed and selected for decades: Sensi Skunk, N13 Kush, Sweet Cherry Kush, Malibu OG Gold and White Label’s Guava Jelly. Each was paired with profiles that American growers are chasing right now, from the frosty dessert notes of Cold Snap and Frosted Flakes to the gas of College Park and Sour Diesel and the candy-sweet terpenes of Thin Mints and The Original Z. Durban Poison joined for its clean, electric sativa high.

Sensi Seeds made 25 test crosses and grew them out at its R&D facility in the Netherlands, hunting through phenotypes for plants that combined Sensi’s structure and reliability with a standout nose. A great nose or a great structure wasn’t enough on its own. Only plants with both made the cut, and many didn’t.

The selections then went through three separate runs, checked each time for consistent height, flowering time and terpene expression. Sensi Seeds and High Times shared samples and grow reports along the way, picked the final phenotypes together and named the strains.

“For 38 years, High Times has told people which genetics were worth growing. Now we get to put five of them in their hands,” said Javier Hasse, editor-in-chief of High Times. “Sensi Seeds was on stage at our Cannabis Cups when most of today’s industry didn’t exist yet, so there was no one better to build this with. One foot in Amsterdam, one in America, known around the world. That’s pretty much the story of High Times.”